The Last Day
by Jordan Greyson
Summary: Jack's POV of his last day with Nina. Pls RR! COMPLETE. Need to be watching season 3 to get the full impact.


Disclaimer: I do not even pretend to have any claim to these characters etc etc.!!  
  
The Last Day  
  
Part 1 Inside the Church  
  
He had her pinned under him, the splintered chair leg pressed into her throat, pushing her life away millimeter by millimeter. The taste of her still in his mouth made him push harder. In order to kiss Nina without retching, he had forced himself to open a door in his memory that he had long ago nailed shut.  
  
He and Nina had been in Santa Barbara, lying side by side on the chilly ground looking up into a stand of eucalyptus trees, their leaves a dichotomy of motion and oneness. They were not leaves at all, but masses of monarch butterflies who found a place here in winter every year. Nina had pointed at one butterfly off from the others.  
  
"See that one Jack, that's you, off alone watching the herd"  
  
He had laughed then asking her if she was sure a group of butterflies was called a herd.  
  
She ignored that as she pointed to another, smaller butterfly that flew and lit next to the lone one.  
  
"And that's me coming to be with you"  
  
He had kissed her, then being half convinced that he might be able to have something meaningful with Nina. She understood him, could share his work. She knew what the job turned him into sometimes—a man that Teri had no patience for anymore and maybe never would again.  
  
Despite immersing himself in the memory, his kiss had failed to convince her that he was a traitor, but it had gained him the physical advantage that he needed to regain control of her. He cursed himself for turning his back on her in the first place. God his head was pounding where she had slammed the briefcase into it. It did seem though that the pills Ramon had given him had brought his withdrawal down to a level he could deal with and he was beginning to be able to think again. He continued to lie to her, pushing harder into her throat but knowing he would have to relent. He needed her to make this deal work. He allowed himself only a brief thought about how it would feel to put his full weight into his task, it wouldn't take much and she would be gone. He gripped the chair leg tighter and pulled it off her. The mission, now, had to be his focus. He put the tight ball of rage away, pushed it back towards the home in his heart where it had lived for so long now, and found it wouldn't quite be put back, not all the way. ..............  
  
His heart hammered in his chest and then dropped low and stayed there. Claudia was dead. He willed his face, his body, his voice to be the smooth, sleek, trained Jack Bauer machine and found himself failing. He stared ahead forcing the tears back as Ramon walked over to Nina. Ramon was oblivious, but she was watching and listening and would use any information she could glean from the tilt of his head to the tone of his voice. He closed his eyes, a silent prayer for his sanity, and allowed himself the briefest moment of grief and memory. He refused to listen to the guilt that whispered look down Jack, see your hands covered in her blood and instead thought of Claudia's hands and her smile and the way she would talk softly into his skin as she kissed his neck. He thought of the way she said his name and the determination of her jaw. He left her there then, a ghost held at bay because the mission demanded it of him now, the god damned, fucking mission, that relentless son- of - a bitch that destroyed and defined him. He could feel the anger coming back now and that was good.  
  
Better for Nina to hear anger in his voice because right now he needed her at this computer and if he didn't let the anger take over in his voice the sorrow would. Agent Jack Bauer started amending his plans the minute he saw that Nina was to be a part of this day. Agent Jack was a realist, he dealt with what came at him second by second. But the inside Jack cursed and railed felt like giving up. He hadn't hunted her down. He had tried to get on with life. Agent Jack promised himself that there would be no more deals for Nina. He would see her in prison again at the end of this day. Inside Jack's hand flexed and thought about being around her thin neck.  
  
Part 2 In the woods  
  
His fist connected with her face and she was down. He wished the bomb, meant for her, had taken her so this decision would be unnecessary. Chase walked away as Jack knew he would. Jack had told Chase everything about Nina. Nina was talking now, knowing that she would have to be the one to convince him she was still useful. He thrust his gun at her wanting to just pull the trigger, to just have it all be over, have her be over.  
  
"Jack, I don't want to die"  
  
He wavered. If she knew something that could help them get the virus, he had to let her live.  
  
He thrust his gun at her again, feeling his whole body shake and rebel against his indecision at pulling the trigger. Agent Jack spoke to him. Hey Jack Bauer, what makes you judge, jury and executioner? Why does the mighty Jack get to decide who lives and who dies? He shouted at the voice that this fucking bitch had killed his wife, his baby oh God his baby and who would avenge them, the justice system? He had played by the rules and they had let her go. He knew they had no choice but to let her go but he wanted Nina to pay. Kim had paid. He had paid and paid and paid and now he wanted more that anything to collect on the long due debt that Nina owed. He was letting inside Jack take over.  
  
"I can help you"  
  
He had to turn this around now because he knew that he had to let her live. Surprise, Déjà vu, Nina was possibly the link to information that could save millions of lives as long as she was able to save her own damn skin in the process. He was seeing her as pure evil now and he needed to humanize her in order to force himself to pull the gun away. Another door then, that had to be opened.  
  
He had been in the little apartment for three weeks. He had been working long hours in excess of what was expected of him. He knew it was just his way of avoiding his issues with Teri, but he did it anyway. He was scared that separation meant divorce and he was afraid of that. But he was more afraid of trying to make it work with Teri, because that meant trying to go back to being the man who had stood in front of her 17 years ago and made promises. In sickness and in health, he had said. He hadn't anticipated that sickness would include the disease of countless bodies buzzing in his brain, closing him off from Teri, disabling him in a way he didn't know if he could fix. He wanted to fix it because he loved her so, but right now he felt frozen. A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He opened the door to Nina, standing there smiling with a huge pizza and a six pack of Corona.  
  
"I know your refrigerator is empty Jack so don't argue"  
  
He was surprised to see her, outside of work. Surprised but relieved for the distraction of having to deal with his shortcomings with Teri.  
  
"Come in. What's on that pizza?"  
  
They had talked that night about everything and nothing. He had gotten to know her in a way that work had not allowed and he had found himself intrigued.  
  
She liked had liked Twin Peaks but almost nothing else on television. Her pet peeves were undercooked pasta and overcooked tuna. Her dream house would consist of 3 floors of glass out in the woods where she could lounge in a tub overlooking the falling snow. She had read everything by Charlotte Brontë but could also be known to eat bags of Hershey's kisses while devouring Stephen King. She gave a percentage of every paycheck to the United Way. She had never known her father, and had loved her mother.  
  
When she left that night Jack thanked her for coming over, and told her that he had a good time for the first time a long time.  
  
"Me too"  
  
And then she surprised him by kissing him on the cheek. And he surprised himself by wishing it had not been his cheek.  
  
Jack still held the gun to her, but she had won another chance at life. He called CTU and told them that he had Nina Myers.... alive.  
  
Part 3 On the plane  
  
He removed his hands from her neck with surprising ease for once. God how could he be so stupid. With every button he pressed on that phone she must have seen her freedom getting closer and closer. NO. Fuck that. Not again, not ever again. This time she had screwed up. When she planted that virus, so long ago she hadn't been able to predict a future that included Chloe O'Brien. This morning, in the hell of his withdrawal, he had been rude and harsh with her. Now he was going to trust her completely to stop this worm, knowing that if she didn't many agents would loose their lives. He smiled inside thinking of her. She was awkward as hell in a conversation with a person, but with the computer she could communicate with the eloquence of an accomplished orator. And when she talked computer everyone listened and performed like an orchestra until the task was done. Jack was not taking Nina back to Mexico. He stated aloud now his confidence that his people could stop the worm.  
  
"I invite you to try"  
  
Nina, her apartment this time, playing chess. He told her he would beat her and she had said the same thing she said now: I invite you to try. They had bet on it and he had won just like he said. His prize was getting to make love to her while she was blindfolded and he had made sure she enjoyed loosing that bet.  
  
She would not enjoy loosing this time. So damn smug he thought. In her mind, prison was getting dimmer and dimmer and no doubt she had some sort of idea how she would get away in Mexico without being killed by him. Mexico was not in her future. Prison was. Prison forever this time.  
  
He felt the plane going up again. No, no, no. Jack would not give in to her, not one more time. He went to the cockpit thinking of five different ways he could do this, thought of all the lives on the line, and in the end the easiest was to hold a gun to the pilot's head. Brutal on the surface, but he would never have shot him, just gone to plan b. The pilot, who did not know that, descended and resumed the maneuvers necessary to land the plane. Come on Chloe he thought, do your thing. And she did. As he walked back to inform Nina he realized that he felt good, felt happy for the first time today.  
  
He got right in her face and smiled as he told her that all of CTU's systems were up and running.  
  
"I don't believe you"  
  
Those were her words, but her voice wavered.  
  
It felt so good to smile.  
  
"I don't care what you believe"  
  
He sat back for a moment, looking ahead and enjoying the feel of his lips curved up. He had won.  
  
Part 4 The final place  
  
Jack looked up as the alarm sounded. He was not surprised that she was loose. He had half expected it and was wholly ready for it. As he pulled out his gun and ran for the clinic it was like he was in two places at once. Here and now, searching for Nina and back then running through these same halls looking for Teri. He took in the massacre of the clinic with horror and incredulity, his eyes widening for a second, wondering how in the hell she could have taken all them out. The inside Jack: You should have broken her neck in the church, you should have shot her in Mexico, you should have hunted her down and killed her before she had a chance to become involved in this, you should have killed her in the parking lot before you even knew Teri was dead.  
  
Agent Jack continued his search barking orders as he ran. Inside Jack sang Kim, Kim where is she?? Not her this time oh God no please.  
  
He came to the doorway and saw Nina raising her gun to his daughter. He felt something strange happening inside him as he shot her. Agent Jack and Inside Jack had come together, had met finally. He told Kim to go and she did. Now standing over Nina was the whole Jack. Teri's husband, Kim's father, a lover, a warrior, and as imperfect as he was, a sworn protector to the human race. He was that lone butterfly they had seen so long ago in Santa Barbara, but he felt so heavy. He had carried that weight so long he no longer knew what it was like to fly free of it. Despite it, now he felt clarity in what he had to do.  
  
Jack had come to realize that even if Nina still had information, which he really doubted, letting her live would mean death to how many more?  
  
"You don't have any more useful information, do you?"  
  
How many more Teri's? Ten, a hundred, a million? He came to realize in that moment that he could live with having Nina's death on his conscience if it came to that. He could pay the consequences for it if it came to that too. What he could not live with were the ghosts, the ones he had and the ones who would come to haunt him if he let her live to kill again. He thought of one last door that had to open.  
  
He had looked across the desk at her the morning after he had told her he was going back to Teri. He knew she was hurt, but she was saying all the things she knew she should because they both knew that working together would be impossible if she didn't. He was saying the things he had to as well. He told her that he cared for her, but he owed it to Teri and Kim to try to make the marriage work. She joked that he wouldn't be Jack if he gave up on it without trying given that he hated loosing. As she was leaving she said something he thought was odd at the time, but that he quickly dismissed to her making a little sexual joke, covering for being hurt.  
  
"Don't worry about me Jack. I had my reasons for being with you and I got out of it what I wanted anyway"  
  
He still wanted to believe that Nina had cared about him then, had even loved him a little. Not for him, but for her. That even though her relationship with him had been about betrayal and lies, that a part of her had felt something for him, for another person besides herself and that it had been good. He hoped so because her chances for finding that, for having that were now over.  
  
She reached for her gun.  
  
"No you don't"  
  
For the people of the world she would not hurt, for the ones in the clinic and their families, for the agents upstairs who would not die at her hand, for the baby he did not know but that might be a part of his life soon, for his precious Kim, for the other baby he would never know and for Teri, finally for Teri.  
  
He stepped into position and ended it. 


End file.
